Attorneys present items from Pelo's home

Friday

May 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMMay 30, 2008 at 9:04 AM

Investigators recovered four ski masks, rope, numerous handguns and knives, several types of black clothing and more than a dozen flashlights and pairs of black gloves when they searched Jeff Pelo's home in June 2006.

Matt Buedel

Investigators recovered four ski masks, rope, numerous handguns and knives, several types of black clothing and more than a dozen flashlights and pairs of black gloves when they searched Jeff Pelo's home in June 2006.

Those items and an array of hair, DNA and fingerprint samples in manila envelopes sealed with red evidence tape covered the courtroom floor of the former Bloomington police sergeant's trial Thursday as prosecutors began piecing together the trail of materials they say connects Pelo to four rapes from 2002 through 2005.

The biological materials came from Pelo, the sex-assault victims and seven cats owned by the victims or their partners.

Prosecutors have said a cat hair was found on one of the ski masks taken from Pelo's home, though Pelo did not own a cat.

Defense attorney Michael Rosenblat, however, challenged the presentation of cat hairs as evidence Thursday. He cited previous testimony about the analysis of the hairs and an undisclosed FBI report on the similarity of the hairs to the one found at Pelo's home.

Dr. Joy Halverson, an animal forensics expert from California, testified earlier in the trial that the cat hair found at Pelo's home could have come from four of the seven cats belonging to the victims based on mitochondrial DNA testing.

In court Thursday, Rosenblat said the state should not be allowed to admit further evidence related to the cat hair because a separate analysis by the FBI found that hair from six of the cats did not microscopically match the evidence hair.

Hair from the remaining seventh cat had similar and different microscopic properties, Rosenblat said the FBI report concluded. It therefore could not be considered a match but also could not be excluded.

Assistant McLean County State's Attorney Sandy Thompson argued the cat hair should be admitted and said the FBI analyst who authored the report would be called to testify.

Associate Judge Robert Freitag allowed jurors to hear testimony about the cat hair. But he sided with the defense on a different matter regarding evidence seized from Pelo's bedroom during the June 2006 raid.

The prosecution had sought to present sex toys, a sex device typically used to assist men in maintaining erections and handguns to the jury.

Rosenblat objected to all those items. He argued the sex paraphernalia were common items not used in the crimes of which Pelo is accused, and that the guns did not match the only description of a gun given by one of the victims.

Thompson said the sex-related items should be admitted as evidence because all four sexual assault victims claimed their attacker could not maintain an erection, and sex toys were used in some of the attacks.

"To take all the guns out of this case would leave the jurors with the impression that Mr. Pelo had no guns," Thompson said.

Freitag excluded the sex toys, calling them "common items" that didn't have "a whole lot of relevance" to the case.

But he did allow the other sex device and the guns.

Pelo's trial on more than three dozen charges related to four sexual assaults and the stalking of a fifth woman will be in recess on Fridays for the duration of the proceedings.